


Weapon X Program

by traumschwinge



Category: Wolverine (Movies), X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Canon Backstory, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rescue Missions, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-05 20:38:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4194105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/traumschwinge/pseuds/traumschwinge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having been picked up on by chance by Charles Xavier and his rag tag group of young mutants, Logan finds him self dragged along into a plan to attack the very facility he'd just escaped from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [XavierineFest2015](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/XavierineFest2015) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Everyone believes that Logan is guilty of a murder(or any other crime). It seems like everyone is trying to hunt him down. During the runaway, Logan runs into Charles and thinks Charles was going to call the police. So he threatens Charles. It turns out Charles believes that Logan is clean and offers to help Logan hide from the police. Logan is shocked, he cannot understand why Charles trusts him so much, so he turns down the offer. But deep down he really wants someone to trust him. During Logan’s self-contradiction, the two of them starts to be attracted by each other.
> 
> Really want to see Charles harboring Logan in his house.

_There’s a mind, foggy as if heavily shielded against telepaths, hurrying through the woods. The person is hunted, alert of any and all sounds of the night, not like a deer running from predators, more like a wolf running from men. Outgunned for sure, there’s no other option left to run, find someplace to lick the wounds all over--oh, no, that’s interesting now, where wounds have been only minutes before, from wire and bullets and shrapnels, there is now nothing else than freshly healed skin. A second more, and no trace remains._

_The primal instincts are so much easier to read in a mind like this. A healing factor, then. Pain that has nothing to do with skin broken open, that goes deeper than blood down to the bones. It’s not too difficult to put the pieces together from there. A refugee, then, not somebody on the run out of their own fault._

_Knowing the secret military operations in this area, it makes sense now, all the reports about a criminal on the run, armed and determined, not to be approached at any cost, too dangerous to even be talked to. But it has been a lie, all of it. Only a criminal if it’s a crime to break free from inhuman testing, from being an involuntary test subject._

_The decision is easily made here. Plant a suggestion into the subconsciousness of that shielded mind, faint lights, a flash of shiny blue paint, the knowledge that the back door will be unlocked, a standing invitation to come inside that’ll override any doubts._

_An easy job well done and the telepath’s mind recedes, leaving it to the hunted to find him._

 

~*~

 

Logan stopped when he saw the lights through the trees. All his attention turned in the direction of the light, the dread he had managed to suppress while he’d been running now creeping up to him again, and yet… The light wasn’t moving. It wasn’t coming for him, it wasn’t even a halogen spot like police and soldiers alike used them when searching in the dark. When he realized that it was nothing more than the neon lights of a service station right in the middle of nowhere, he could have laughed if he’d had enough breath left.

Mindful to keep out of the light as much as possible, still alert to every noise, Logan sneaked closer. If only he could hijack a car, or even just hide in the trunk of one, it could be his ticket out of here. He was sure they were looking for him. He’d seen the helicopters when it had still been day and he had lain low in the mud, buried under dead leaves and twigs and not moving for hours out of fear of getting caught. He had smelled the dogs and men combing through the woods and thanked whoever wanted to listen to his silent prayers that he knew exactly how a dog’s nose worked, as it was how his own worked.

He would need to lay low for another couple of weeks, maybe even months, before he could dare to try leave the country. He didn’t even know where he was. All he could remember--all his memories--were of the facility and scientists and pain. There was more, he could feel it, but it was locked away behind a wall of impenetrable metal.

He had almost reached the road, when a car pulled up to the station. It was a shiny blue panel wagon, perfect for checking the back door and hiding inside if empty. It would even be a somewhat comfortable ride then and one where he wouldn’t have to fear being seen in the rearview mirror. The driver--a young man that looked like he could be overpowered easily if necessary--got out and went straight for the station itself, without bothering to refuel his van first. Seeing his chance, Logan listened for cars, before he hurried across the street in a dark spot, minding that the path that would take him to the van couldn’t be overseen from the building.

Logan was surprised to find the back of the van unlocked, but he shrugged the initial spark of distrust off. He had been ready to pick the lock with one of his claws after all, it was just much more convenient to simply pull open the doors and climb inside.

The back of the van was empty, but he could faintly smell a number of people, as if it was used every now and then for the same purpose he had climbed in. Suspicious all over again, Logan briefly debated the wisdom of staying against the wisdom of getting out and continuing on foot. The van still won, so he pulled the doors shut from the inside and waited, ready to strike should the driver open the back before driving off.

It took about two minutes after he’d closed the door before he heard steps approaching. The young man did not bother checking the unlocked back of his car, he went directly for the door on the driver’s side and climbed in. Logan held his breath, concentrated on making no noise at all in the brief period of time it took the driver to get settled and start the engine. Only then did Logan dare to relax a little.

The drive took a long time, but it was steady, without many turns. Logan felt himself almost nod off more than once. A couple of times he was even sure he had slept for a bit, before a pothole had woken him up again. He didn’t dare to sleep, too afraid that they might arrive without him noticing, ending in him waking up bound and in custody again.

He shouldn’t have worried as much. The car eventually slowed down, stopped, presumably for the moment it took for the garage door to open, rolled inside and then stopped for good. Logan could hear the driver get out and then his echoing steps through the room, the noise of a door opening and closing and then he was alone.

Counting the seconds, Logan still waited five minutes until he sneaked to the doors and opened them just wide enough so he could slink out, before closing them with utmost care not to make an audible sound. To Logan himself it still felt like the low click was ringing throughout the garage. After that, he had to stay still for a few moments to calm down and convince himself that nobody but him had been able to hear it.

He was halfway to the door, when there was a click and the neon lights flickered to life. Logan whirled around, his claws unsheathing, ready to strike at any attacker. There was no attacker, or at least no obvious one. The young man who’d driven the van was standing by the closed door that lead presumably to the house, or the backyard, one hand still at the light switch the other plainly visible and empty. He was very distinctively non-threatening. It threw Logan off enough not to jump at him immediately. Instead, he merely glowered and remained poised to strike.

“I’m not going to call the police,” the young man said slowly, his eyes fixed on Logan’s claws. “I haven’t already called them either.”

He paused, as if to give Logan an opportunity to reply. Logan remained silent.

“Listen, I heard about you on the news but… Let’s just say you’re safe here. I will not call the police. Or the army. Or any government agency for that matter,” the young man sighed. “My name is Charles. If you want to, you can stay here, in my house. I have a spare bedroom you can use and feeding one more mouth won’t be a problem either. You’re safe here.”

Logan glowered, but something about the young man made him relax slightly. Logan didn’t like that. “What are you?”

Charles, or whatever his name really was, frowned. “What do you mean?” For the first time, he seemed to lose a lick of his cool.

“I couldn’t smell you before you turned the lights on,” Logan growled. “I couldn’t hear you. I can now. So, what are you?”

“I’m human,” Charles said, sounding confused. But he didn’t smell like it until suddenly, he did. Logan stalked closer. “I’m human, just like you.”

Logan raised his hand to show off his claws. They glinted in the light. “As you can see, I’m not exactly human,” he growled.

Charles sighed. _Okay, fine,_ he said, but his voice sounded different now, like it was coming through mist. It took a moment for Logan to realize he wasn’t hearing the words with his ears but with his mind. _I’m not exactly, strictly speaking, human either._

“What the..?” Logan snarled. He was ready to gut the young man by now, if only to protect himself, but he found he couldn’t move.

“Listen, I know you’re tired and scared, but I really don’t mean you any harm,” Charles explained, in the same tone he would use talking to a spooked animal. “I’m like you. But! If you keep on threatening me, I will be forced to defend myself.”

“Like you’re doing right now?” Logan growled, fighting against whatever was holding him back from slashing at Charles.

Charles shook his head. “No, like making you forget about tonight and send you on your way back to the secret military base you ran from three days ago. So, will you stay, at least for the night, or not?”

“If I’m not staying, you will let me leave, right?” Logan asked, his eyes fixed on Charles’. He felt he could retract his claws, at least, so he did.

“I won’t keep you here against your will,” Charles confirmed.

Logan found he could move again then, so he shifted his stance to a less intimidating one. “In that case, bub, I’d like to leave now.”

“Let me open the garage door then.” Charles very slowly reached into his pocket, making sure Logan could see what he was doing. As if Logan was afraid of guns, their wounds healed just as fast as anything else. Charles pulled out a little black box and pressed a button, causing the garage door to be pulled up, accompanied by some rattling.

Even though it went against his whole nature, Logan turned his back to Charles. He was fairly fairly certain the young man wouldn’t attack him physically. Slowly, Logan made a couple of steps towards the door, concentrating on his breathing and every single step. Just when he heard Charles relax as well, a rustle of fabric as if he was turning away, Logan whipped around and jumped. His claws were out lightning fast, pointed at Charles.

He would have been able to sink them into flesh, too, if there hadn’t been the voice in his mind that said, deafeningly loud, “ _SLEEP_.” And Logan did, just like that, mid-jump, his vision blacking out, just as his body went limp.

 

***

 

Logan woke up in a bed. It was soft and warm and very distinctively a real bed, not the kind of bunks and cots he’d been used to, but something a person was actually meant to relax on. He wondered briefly if he was still dreaming, but it didn’t feel like he was, it wasn’t even like his usual dreams. For one, in his usual dreams, he wasn’t waking up surrounded by flowery patterns.

That only left the possibility that he was still at Charles’ place and he hadn’t called the police, yet. Not that he needed to. He had made it very clear that he was very capable of defending himself. Only, that didn’t quite explain why he hadn’t thrown Logan out after the attack, or even dumped him somewhere at the side of the road with a sticky note pinned that people should call the military to pick him up.

Logan drew a deep breath. Yup, it definitely smelled like the van had in here, even though the smell of other people beside Charles was a bit stronger, as if the young man wasn’t living on his own. He sat up. If he was honest, he’d expected Charles to turn up as soon as h’d woke up, with whatever weird psychic abilities he had. For a second, Logan hoped dearly that Stryker would never get his hands on Charles or anyone like him. What he could and had done with Logan’s DNA had been bad enough, but with somebody who could control minds, there was no limit to what Stryker could come up with.

Thinking of Stryker reminded him of something, something he hadn’t felt when he’d sat up. He reached for his dogtags, only to find them gone. In panic, he looked around the room, like that would have them mysteriously turn up. He came up empty, despite an extensive search. They weren’t anywhere on the nightstand or the bed or the small desk by the window. His dogtags, the only proof of his identity he had left, were gone.

Getting out of bed had revealed yet another thing that was wrong. He wasn't wearing his own clothes, or rather the clothes he had stolen at a farm two days ago, anymore, but a pair of soft sweatpants and a ratty old t-shirt. Somebody must have changed his clothes while he was out. Or, a tiny voice at the back of his mind reminded him, maybe Charles had just made him do it himself while he was out of it. Shit, that was yet another reason to go and find that annoying brat to yell at him.

It was then that Logan decided to simply try the door. It wasn't locked, not that it surprised Logan. It did fit with Charles' weird MO until now after all. At least, Logan supposed, he was treating him like a guest, despite Logan's hostile behavior. He wondered what Charles knew about him to act like that, what the hell he saw in him to consider him anything but a danger.

The door led to a surprisingly long corridor with seven other doors. All of them were closed and he couldn't hear anything from inside of them, so he guessed that those were bedrooms like his. Briefly, he wondered if Charles ran a hotel. He could hear voices from down the stairs at the end of the corridor, however.

Logan hesitated to go down there. If this really was a hotel, he had no interest in risking that a guest calling the police on him. He should just lock himself up in his room and wait until Charles came for him. Though when had he ever done the sensible thing? Right now, he mostly wanted to yell at Charles, risk be damned.

 _Oh come on now_ , he suddenly heard Charles’ voice in his mind. _Nobody here is going to call anyone because of you. Get down here, we just started breakfast._

Logan made a point of concentrating on each and every curse he knew, but he still stomped down the stairs, following the voices to find himself the kitchen, or dining hall, or whatever this weird place had.

He found Charles and five more kids around a table in a spacious kitchen. They were obviously right in the middle of a lively discussion over breakfast, but as soon as Logan stepped into the room, the talking stopped and all faces turned towards him.

"Good morning, Logan," Charles smiled. Now, in daylight, Logan could see that he's been off with his guess about the man's age. He was nowhere near as young as he'd thought, closer to forty than anything. "Come here, take a seat. You must be hungry. Would you like some scrambled eggs?" Somehow, the fact that he empathized that last sentence by holding out a plate full of eggs just made Logan even madder at him.

“What the actual fuck,” Logan growled. He felt like he was just a second away from jumping across the table at Charles and stab him. “What the fuck is going on here? Are you crazy? Am I crazy because you fucked with my mind? What the hell is going on here?!”

“What the hell did you do now, Charles? I thought you picked him up by the street and invited him to stay. _Out of his own free will_ ,” the girl next to Charles said, her voice turning stern at the last words, and, oh, she was blue all over, with red hair and yellow eyes.

Charles gave a helpless shrug. “I tried to ask him,” he defended himself. “I just… we had a little misunderstanding last night, didn’t we?”

One of the boys, a lanky one with nerdy glasses and hair, groaned. “Professor, no, don’t tell me I removed a tracking chip from a real wanted criminal last night.” He looked miserable.

Logan frowned. Tracking chip? He couldn’t remember being implanted with anything. Still, he subconsciously scratched his arm.

“I assure you, he is not,” Charles protested, before he looked up to Logan as if he would find any help there. “You escaped from the military facility thirty miles away from here, didn’t you? That’s why they’re looking for you so desperately.”

“Even if, what’s it to you,” Logan huffed.

But the kids were already gaping at him, like he was some sort of hero. “You escaped on your own?” “That’s a high security facility, man!” “What can you do?” “How did you do it?” “Is that why they’re searching for you on TV and everything? You’re like public enemy number one right now!” They were all talking over one another all of a sudden, as if they couldn’t get their questions out fast enough. Logan looked helplessly between them, not sure what to do. He wasn’t mad at them, after all he couldn’t just yell at a bunch of kids to get off his back and let him leave.

Logan let out a sigh. Never let it be said that he didn’t know when he was defeated. So he pulled out an empty chair and slumped down on it, between a red-headed boy and the nerdy one. “I’ll answer all that shit, if you let me eat and ask one question at a time,” he growled, but he couldn’t muster all that much spite. The breakfast on the table looked really great, especially since he didn’t get food like that since… forever, if he was honest. “So,” he asked, as he pulled over the plate with the eggs. “Who’s first?”

The kids exchanged a look, before the blue girl asked, “What can you do?”

“What can I do?” Logan parroted, one eyebrow raised.

The girl grinned, before a ripple went over her skin and she was suddenly blond, with pale skin and blue eyes. Another ripple and he was looking at himself. “What can you do?” the blue girl gone Logan repeated. One last ripple and she was back to her blue self again.

“That was impressive,” Logan had to admit. “Creepy, but impressive. I can do this.” He unsheathed his claws and since he had them out already, used them to scrape some eggs onto his plate.

“Gross,” one of the boys commented.

“Fascinating, so your mutation are metal claws?” The nerdy boy was leaning closer to inspect the claws.

Logan shook his head. “Just bone claws, and enhanced healing,” he said. “The metal… was added later, covers my bones and is really not the right topic for breakfast. Or, ever, if you don’t mind.” He didn’t just imagine the frown that crossed Charles’ face for a moment, before he could school his expression to something more lighthearted again. “Next question.”

“You really escaped a high-security, secret, military facility all on your own?” That one was from the red head.

Between two bites, Logan managed to get say, “No, they just let me go after they saw the error of their ways.” He frowned. “Of course I escaped. Those metal bones came in quite handy then, really.”

The awed silence lasted for about five seconds, before the boy that looked like some all-American poster boy, asked, “Did the Prof really find you by the road?”

Logan couldn’t help but huff. “I broke into his creepy van. Then he waited for me in the dark garage.”

“Really, Charles?” the blue girl sighed.

“It’s technically picking him up if I knew he was there all the time and left the doors open on purpose, Raven,” Charles shot back.

“No, it’s not, that’s just idiocy.”

Logan frowned. “You knew I was there?” He had been temporarily placated with food--only a little but still--but now his irritation was back at full force. “What the hell is it you do with your mind-tricks?”

“Uhm,” Charles looked around the table uncomfortably. “I think, introductions might be in order. You already know my name, but I, uhm, I’m a telepath.”

“That means?” Logan’s frown deepened.

“I can read and manipulate minds?”

“Like you did last night when you told me to sleep?”

Charles shrugged. “Something like that, yes.” He pointed to the blue girl next to him. “That’s Raven, my sister. You’ve already seen what she can do. Next to her is Darwin,” he pointed at the man about Charles’ own age next to her, who waved. “His powers are a bit impractical to demonstrate here, but he can adapt to pretty much everything.”

Dawin waved. “We can spar a little after breakfast, if you’d like.”

“Next is Alex, he shoots lasers,” Charles went on.

“Lasers?” Logan looked doubtfully at the blond boy. “Are you going to tell me you were actually a comic book hero before, too?”

Alex shook his head. “No, but my parents are aliens,” he grinned.

Logan stared at him for a second. “You’re fucking with me, bub.”

“Yeah, well,” Alex shrugged. “But you can’t prove they’re not.”

“Hey,” the redhead next to Logan said, extending his hand. “I’m Sean. And actually, I’m Batman.”

That made the kids around the table laugh. Logan started to wonder what he’d gotten himself into here. None of them looked old enough to be around him, especially not when he was hunted by the government. What was Charles even thinking?

“Aw, come on, man, cheer up,” Sean said. He looked like he was about to pat Logan on the shoulder but one glare took care of that unwanted notion. “It was a joke, but pretty close. I can scream like a human bat. That’s why they call me Banshee here.”

“Are you sure that’s not just because you’re bringing death to the people around you?” Raven hollered from across the table.

“Oh, shut up!” Sean threw a bit of toast at her which she caught with her mouth.

“Children!” Charles protested, but in vain. He let out a long sigh. “That’s Hank to your other side, he helped me with that annoying tracking chip last night. It might have been broken already but we destroyed it just to be on the safe side.”

“So you’re super-smart?” Logan asked Hank.

Hank nodded, though he pressed his lips together as if that wasn’t all there was to him.

“And last but not least, we have Angel.” Charles gestured at the other woman at the table.

She nodded at Logan. “I spit acid. You don’t want to get on my bad side, healing factor or no.” She smiled sweetly at Logan’s irritated huff.

At least the end of the quick round of introductions coincided with Logan being done with breakfast. He’d eaten quite a bit, which he blamed all on the rich offerings of the table and not at all on how good everything--especially the eggs--had tasted. So there was really nothing that kept him from standing up and fixating Charles with a glare. “We still need to talk,” he said.

If could be that it was just the last bit of his breakfast tea, but Charles swallowed at Logan's words, before he too stood up, touching his sister on his shoulder. "In that case, if you'd follow me? We can talk in the study," he said stiffly. Logan watched him as he went around the table and then past Logan himself to the door. Logan wasted one last glance back at the table--the kids, they were just kids--and followed Charles to an empty room down the ground floor hallway.

"So, what the fuck is it you want from me?" Logan growled once the door was closed behind them. "What weird game are you playing here? Those, those kids, why are they all here? Are you working for the government as well?" That thought alone was enough for Logan's claw to unsheathe. He hadn't thought about it before, but now that was something he desperately needed to know. He hadn't just run from one facility to end up in the next.

"Uhm." Charles looked uneasy, his eyes flickering between Logan's face and his claws. "Currently, I'd like it if you put those away." He pointed at Logan's claws. Logan merely shook his head, so Charles continued, "I was working for the government, but only until about five years ago. I couldn't stay after I found out what they do with people like us, you sure must understand. I took Raven and Hank with me then..."

"What about the other kids?" Logan asked.

Charles shrugged. "They...all sort of just showed up. I found Alex in jail because they thought he blew up a garage with a bomb, not realizing that it had been him losing control of his powers. Darwin..."

But Logan already held up a hand. "I wasn't asking for their life stories, bub. And spare me the sob stories. Whatever you want, that's not going to help."

Charles pressed his lips together. “I… I honestly didn’t know what I wanted last night when I noticed you were in the back of my van,” he confessed. “I knew you were like us, so I wanted to offer you shelter for as long as you want like I do with anyone like us in need. Or at least offer you a ride to another state, or even down to the border if you want to spend a couple of days on the road. But.” Charles paused. “After what I saw in your mind last night, I think you might be willing to help us.”

“Help you?” Logan scoffed. “Do what? All I see you do is collect strays.”

“We all know what they do at those facilities, what they do to _people_ ,” Charles said, suddenly his eyes fixed on Logan’s and his voice determined. “The one you escaped from especially. We didn’t have the means, but now that you’re here…”

“You’re fucking insane!” Logan growled. He was ready to storm out the door and out of the house and never ever look back, maybe after he’d punched Charles in the face. “That ‘we’ you’re talking about that’s mostly kids. How can you, how can you do that?!” He hadn’t even realized it but in the end he was screaming.

Charles had flinched back at his words, his stance defensive now. "Some of them spent time in facilities like that," he said, slowly, his voice dangerously flat. "It's not the first secret research facility we infiltrated, it wouldn't even be the first we incapacitated. They want to help. I was just as sceptical as you are at first, but I can't stop them, so why not let them help as long as they know exactly what they’re getting into?"

“They’re just kids!” Logan hissed helplessly, but he could see the point. He was already making up his mind, he knew he was making up reasons to stay and help them actually being able to make these educated choices about that one facility in particular, and yet… He glared at Charles. “I need to think,” he said gruffly. “Without you near by to make up my mind for me.”

Charles let out a deep breath. “Okay,” he said. “Okay, sure, you can do that. We’re pretty out in the sticks here, so if you just walk in any direction I’m sure you’ll get out of range before you even meet another human being. I mean…” He bit his lower lip. “Obviously, I’d like it best if you’d just agreed, but if you need time, take all you need.”

“I can’t promise I’ll come back,” Logan growled, just for the sake of it. He was almost sure, even if he would decide against helping in that particular case, he’d still come back, if only to see what the kids could do. But he wasn’t sure if that wouldn’t change once he was sure he was the only master of his mind again.

“I understand.” Charles nodded.

Logan was about to turn around and leave, when he remembered something else. He thrust his hand out at Charles. “My dog tags!”

Charles pressed his lips together. “They should still be down in the lab. I’m sorry we had to make sure they aren’t tracking devices as well.”

“The lab?” Logan repeated, cautious now. Whatever bit of trust he had mustered for Charles evaporated at that one little word. The images of various laboratories and the horrors experienced there were still too fresh.

“Hank’s lab,” Charles explained quickly. “He’s… It’s not about our powers. He was an engineer before he came here and likes to keep his projects alive, mostly to help us with gadgets. Else we wouldn’t have been able to get that chip safely out of your arm.”

“I really don’t care,” Logan growled. He hesitated. He wanted to stomp down there, get his tags and leave, but the thought alone of having to set foot inside another lab had him reeling, no matter how much Charles would swear up and down that it was more like a workshop really.

Before he could reach a decision about it, Charles murmured, “I’ll fetch them.” as he pushed past Logan and out of the door. Logan blinked after him, temporarily having lost his footing. “I’d like my clothes as well,” he told the empty room weakly.

It took less than five minutes for Charles to come back with the dogtags and--as if he’d heard Logan--his clothes as well. He left Logan alone to get changed, but waited just outside the door when Logan came out, looking uneasy. “I just wanted to tell you again that you’re welcome here any time,” he said.

Logan nodded. “Yeah, sure.” And with that he left, fully intending to walk out the door and not look back until he was sure he had at least five miles between himself and the telepath.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I meant to post this chapter earlier but technology wouldn't work with me.  
> Anyway, **a big thanks to[Gerec](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Gerec#_=_) for being an awesome beta and to anyone who had to listen to me whine about this fic.**

Logan had no idea why he returned three days later. He had spent the past days thinking, trying to convince himself that returning to look out for the kids wasn’t worth it, that not even the free food and lodgings Charles had obviously offered were worth getting himself and others in danger. He had gotten out of that facility, after all, so who in their right mind would walk back in, all good intentions to shut it down aside? But then he remembered the others who were still there, who still were holding out. The thought of Charles probably sending the kids in anyway had been the tipping point, at which he just had to turn around.

He hated himself a little for it.

To his surprise it wasn’t Charles who opened the door when he knocked, but the lanky kid. Hank, Logan recalled vaguely. The one with the lab. He did his best not to show his disgust on his face.

He must be less than successful with it, because Hank let out a startled yelp, before he murmured something that could have been “I’ll go fetch Charles” before he slammed the door right in Logan’s face.

Logan glared a little at the closed door, but resigned himself to waiting. He could just open the door and waltz inside, sure, but that wasn’t right when he came here with something akin to a peace offering. At least Charles didn’t leave him waiting for long, it even looked like he’d come running when he pulled the door open.

“Logan,” he beamed, like finding a hostile, gruff man at his doorstep was the happiest moment of his day. “I hoped you’d come back.”

Logan shrugged. “That has nothing to do with you,” he said. “I’m here on a few conditions.”

“Oh,” Charles’ smile faltered a little. “What are they?”

“One,” Logan held up a finger. “I will not give you any details about the facility if I think it’s too dangerous for any of you to go in there.”

Charles nodded. “That’s alright.”

“Two, I get to join in with your training or whatever it is you do with these kids,” Logan went on.

“Agreed, I meant to ask you to do that anyway,” Charles said.

“And three, the moment it gets too fishy for my liking here, I’m out.” Logan crossed his arms in front of his chest. “That’s not negotiable.”

“Agreed,” Charles nodded. “I wouldn’t want to keep you against your will.”

That left Logan at bit of a bit of a loss. He’d expected to be met with a little more resistance. Charles couldn’t really be so desperate to offer him a safe harbor to Logan’s conditions without having some of his own. “Erm,” Logan started. “Isn’t there anything you’d want me to do as well?”

Charles gave him a little once-over. “Well, how about you come in and have a shower? I can show you around after.”

“I can’t decide whether you’re also the nicest person I ever met or just insane,” Logan said, shaking his head. He still stepped inside and let Charles directe him to the showers and tell him that there were clothes his size in the room he’d waken up in if he wanted fresh ones. Logan just nodded at the spill of words and then went off to find the shower.Luxuries like that made staying at least bearable, no matter what happened.

When Logan came down, freshly showered and in sweatpants and a t-shirt again, he found Charles and some of the kids, Alex, Darwin and Hank, if Logan recalled correctly, in what looked like a living room. They were inspecting some sort of disk that smelled of solder and electronics.

“Do you really think that’ll work?” Alex asked sceptically. He was turning the disk between his fingers.

Hank nodded. “I’m sure it will, it’s all just a matter of focus.”

Alex gave a toneless laugh. “So it’ll be my own fault if it goes wrong, Bozo?”

“No, I meant, the problem was to focus your energy. Which this will,” Hank explained.

It was then when Logan made his presence known. Charles turned to him with a bright smile, but the boys all looked more than sceptical.

"Should I come back later?" Logan asked, but still sauntered over. "I was promised a tour."

"Ah, well," Charles said, looking between Logan and the boys. "We were just about to try something out. Do you want to watch?"

Alex frowned, and Hank looked unhappy as well, and that might have been the reason Logan nodded. Charles clapped his hands together. "Wonderful." He was beaming again so Logan found it necessary to roll his eyes.

The little group went down into the basement. That basement was nothing like Logan had expected. He'd thought it would be a cellar, maybe with a workbench in one corner to serve as Hank's tinkering lab. But what he actually saw down there was a long corridor, that spoke of a large underground area. They only went into what looked an old atomic shelter, but there were other doors as well, one of which smelled so much like Hank that Logan was almost sure it would lead to the lab. He had no idea what the other doors could lead to.

Logan looked on sceptically as Darwin put up some targets at the other end of the shelter while Hank was fumbling with the plate around Alex chest. "It would be easier if you could take off your shirt," Hank noted.

"Yeah, sure, bozo, not gonna happen," Alex gave back.

Logan hung back a bit with Charles, watching the boys. "So, what's going to happen here, now?" he asked.

Charles pointed at Hank and Alex. "Alex has still a few issues with his fine control, so Hank constructed a little device to hopefully help him aim better," he explained. "Only until he can do it on his own, obviously, but it's a help."

Logan nodded. The concept of people actually having to train their abilities instead of just having them as a passive constant of their lives was foreign to him. But he could see how this was useful for a kid who shot lasers.

He watched on as Alex eventually tried the device strapped to his chest for the first time. The beam he could shoot was impressive, but Logan could also see why he needed help with his aim as it didn’t even come close to the targets. It also explained why they were practicing in a shelter. Alex could probably burn an entire forest down if he wasn’t careful.

Hank was watching from next to Charles, both of them occupied with their own conversation about the device and possible fine adjustments. Logan watched them, too, not only when Hank was fumbling with the device and Charles was left waiting. He had to wonder again how Charles could dare taking these kids into military facilities to… whatever it was they did there. Rescue people like them, people like him specifically, probably. It fit with what he’d seen here so far and what Charles had told him.

Eventually, Hank and Charles had seen enough and told Alex to stop. By the end of the session, Alex had been able to hit at least two out of three targets with each shot. Logan was actually a bit impressed with how fast the boy learned but also deeply concerned what would happen with such powerful abilities if he ever got in the hands of the wrong people.

Again, it was Darwin, who for all Logan knew had come along for no reason, to take away the now smoldered targets. Seeing as he himself had nothing better to do, Logan walked over to him. “You need any help?”

Darwin looked up at him and shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay, man. I got this.”

“Adapting to it?” Logan joked, remembering what Darwin had said about what he could do.

“Something like that,” Darwin shrugged. “Hey, what about that sparring match? Seeing as we didn’t get to it the last time?” He nodded in the direction of Charles and the others. “They’ll be busy for a while anyway.”

Logan followed his glance. It looked like he was right, Charles and Hank were in the middle of an animated discussion about the device with Alex standing next to them, looking a little uncomfortable. A little like a lab rat. Logan shook that thought out of his head. No, that wasn’t it, for all he knew nobody had forced the boy to even try it. He didn’t smell afraid at all, just a little bit uncertain, maybe because he only got half the conversation like Logan.

Forcing himself to put his suspicions aside, he nodded. “Sounds good. Wanna do it right here?”

Armando laughed. “Hey, I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer not to hit the concrete. We do have a fitness room here, with some mats on the floor.”

Logan nodded. “Fine, it won’t be me hitting the floor anyway, so suit yourself.”

He shouldn’t have been this cocky. Darwin turned out to be really good at hand on hand combat.

It was only partly due to his mutation, which he used to bring out hard scales to block Logan's claws with. Most of it, though, was that he was just so much better than Logan. The first ten minutes of the sparring match, Logan spent almost more time on the mat than standing up. He was just starting to get a little frustrated, when he heard cheering from the door. Great, so apparently they had an audience now, too.

"Hey, Darwin, go easy on him, will you?" A female voice cheered. Raven, in her blond form, was standing by the door, together with Sean. "We don't wanna chase him away so soon."

Dawin signalled Logan for a break. Logan was begrudgingly happy about taking a moment to catch his breath even though he'd never show it. Darwin on the other hand had no problem talking back at Raven, "Wouldn't that be your job?"

"Her job?" Logan groaned. He was sure by now that if it hadn't been for his healing factor he would be able to count bruises tonight. Really, he needed to get back into better shape.

In his reverie he hadn't noticed Raven sneaking closer. The girl moved like a cat, something Logan hadn't anticipated. Maybe there really was more to the kids than what appeared at first glance. She knacked her knuckles like a fucking beginner, though. "Wanna give me a chance as well?" she smirked. "Or are you afraid to be beaten up by a girl?"

By the door, Sean giggled.

Logan rolled her eyes at her. "I might be slow but I ain't that stupid," he growled. "I'll get my ass handed to me by you." That much was really obvious just from the way she moved. By no means did he intend to let himself been fooled by her rosy cheeked blond form of choice. Out of all the kids here Logan would put his money on her to handle any attack situation flawlessly.

"So that's a no on the sparring?" She had yet to lose the smirk.

"That was just an observation," Logan said. "Don't hold back."

"Oh, I won't." She'd left her shoes by the edge of the mat, so she was now barefooted in the middle of the mat, facing Logan. It hadn’t gone past him that she moved even more swiftly without her shoes. “Let’s get started, old man.” She gestured him to swing the first attack.

Logan wasn’t sure what happened next. One second, he was aiming a punch at her flank, the next she was using his own momentum against him to spin him around. He tried another attack, this time going full frontal, but again, she blocked him with ease. This time, however, he found himself on his back when she was done with him, all air knocked from his lungs with the impact. She had one knee on his chest and grinned down at him.

“Already had enough, old man?” She flexed, without really giving him an opportunity to struggle. She’d only have to shift a little, he knew, and she would resting her weight on his throat instead of his sternum. “Charles said you thought we didn’t know how to fight, you know? Pretty judgmental.” She pushed her knee down for a second, mostly to drive her point home. “We all know what we’re doing, okay? Some of us more than others, that’s true, but none of us are stupid.”

“All I can see is that you’re good in a training environment,” Logan huffed, even though that wasn’t entirely true. As good as Raven was, she wasn’t helpless in a real combat situation, at least as long as… “I have no idea how you work under pressure. Even the best in training can fail horribly the first time in battle. Have you ever had a mission go wrong? Had you ever to decide between helping one of your friends or another in mere seconds?”

She frowned, but then shook her head. “We’ve been on missions, but…” She hesitated for a moment. “We’ve always had Charles to ensure everything was going according to plan.”

“That’s careless.” He could see her point though. With a telepath on their side to tell them exactly where the enemies were and who could put individuals to sleep at will, there wasn’t much need to worry about surprises. But still, there really was no reason to believe that there weren’t means to block out telepathy. There had to be, if any part of the government knew that it was possible.

"And that's exactly why we need you, Logan," came Charles' voice from the doorway. Raven immediately jumped up and walked over to him.

"What do you mean? Do you really think he's right?" she frowned. "You've never let us down. And I'm sure we'd be able to handle the situation anyway, even without you."

Charles put a hand on her back. "I didn't mean to doubt your abilities," he told her. "I'm just... a little concerned. The last time was a close call, and I'm not sure if we'll be as lucky next time. We can all learn from Logan's caution, I'm sure." His last words were directed more to Logan, with something akin to plead in his eyes, than to the rest of the group in the room.

Logan shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure what you expect me to do." He pushed himself up the floor. "All I know is how I've seen soldiers react in unexpected situations. There's just make or break in my experience." He stretched. Raven's counters had really hurt. She'd be okay, he guessed. Under her fresh faced facade was a core of steel. "I could help you with the planning though, and maybe come up with one or two tales as of what to expect, I guess."

“That’s all I’d ask of you,” Charles beamed, obviously relieved by Logan’s promise to help.

Logan rolled his eyes at him. It wasn’t like he’d done anything yet. “But you could tell me what you’ve done before I showed up. Just so I know.”

"There isn't much to tell." Charles shrugged. "Just a handful of small research facilities we shut down. Nothing bigger than 100 people working there so I would always have an overview of everyone. One or two transports lost the, uhm, they call them subjects, probably, but I'd say prisoners, to us as well." He pressed his lips together. "As I said, nothing big. Not enough to make a difference."

"Shut down how?" Logan asked. Then, after a moment's hesitation, he added, "And you did make a difference for those you helped."

Charles smiled a little at that and tilted his head a little as if to say the reassurance was not necessary. "We took their research data or destroyed it, while we were freeing the people they'd kept there," he explained.

Logan nodded along with his words. It was a reasonable course of action, although in this day and age there was no way to make sure there weren't any copies left for the to continue. But it was a huge hit to the research at any rate. "And you never ran into trouble?" Logan asked. He pointed at his temple. "With, you know..."

"My telepathy?" Charles asked. He shrugged. "Not that I know of, no."

"So...?" Logan was about to ask if Charles suspected they had developed means to shield themselves from him, when he heard Charles in his mind, _Let's discuss this another time. I don't want to worry the others too much._

_Fine_ , Logan thought the word as pronounced as possible hoping Charles would read it as the intentional answer it was.

“So, you promised me a tour of the house,” Logan concluded his question.

Logan had the deep feeling that he would soon get used to seeing Charles smile. It was sweet, in a totally unsettling way. "I think there isn't much left to show you, actually," Charles admitted. "There's only the lab in the basement left. And I'm not sure if you want to see it...?"

Logan did his best not to look too uncomfortable, but he still said, "I'll look at it later."

"It's fine," Charles told him. "So, can I leave you to your training now? Or do I have to worry you'll take serious hits from Raven here?" He winked.

Logan laughed. “I guess my ego will survive getting beaten down by a great fighter.”

Raven beamed a little at the compliment. "If you want to, I can teach you some of my moves," she said, before giving him an once-over. "If you're not too slow or heavy for them."

"I can't promise anything about the heavy part, but I'm faster than I look," Logan shrugged. "But go ahead, teach."

Logan spend the rest of the day getting repeatedly thrown onto the ground, in increasingly frustrating ways. Whenever he had learned one of Raven's tricks, she had the next one already planned out, ready to start all over again. There were some he really couldn't do, for one reason or another, but overall, she seemed pleased with him when they took a break to get lunch.

The afternoon, they switched to Logan showing her, and some of the boys as they wandered in and out of the gym, where to hit when you wanted to hurt your opponent and in general how to fight dirty. Raven was an eager learner, showing even more interest in what Logan was teaching her than she'd shown in throwing him down. He could almost see her working out how to use what he showed with her own techniques.

They wrapped up training with enough time for everyone to go take a shower. By then, even Logan was tired and glad to be able to call it a day. The promise of food was also a very nice prospect. He couldn't remember the last time he had been able to look forward to real food in regular intervals. Dinner with all the kids was loud, to the surprise of absolutely no one, but Logan found that he didn't mind as much as he'd have thought.

He wasn't sure how it'd happened, but after dinner, Logan found himself alone with Charles in the study. Charles was sitting down in one of the arm chairs by the fireplace. He had offered Logan the same, but Logan prefered to remain standing, for now. There was just something about Charles that unnerved him greatly and he had no idea if he could even stay seated for a minute around him. "So," Charles started. "You asked if I've encountered anyone that had means to protect themselves against my telepathy. The truth is yes and no. I've encountered some people that have a natural protection that makes them harder to read for me. But that's not enough to stop my gift entirely." He sighed. "But I think you're right. It's very possible that there are military projects or secret services working on technical means to keep telepaths like me out so everyone could be immune. In fact, I would be surprised if there weren't already gadgets in development. And that's why we need you, Logan, somebody like you. The others, they can't rely solely on my abilities to keep them safe forever. One day, something will go wrong and I won't be able to help. I tried to tell them, but it seemed like nobody wanted to listen, aside from Darwin and Hank."

"I think you underestimate them," Logan huffed. "Have you seen Raven, for example? I'm pretty sure she can handle herself just fine. I don't know about the rest of them, though." For a moment, he hesitated. "Is it just me or are you actually hinting that they have telepathy blockers at _that_ facility?"

Charles shrugged, but he was obviously uncomfortable. "I'm almost sure. After all that we've heard about that facility, the project there is too big and too important for them not to have any means possible to protect them. They... do you know what exactly they're working on in there?"

"Weapons," Logan said darkly. "Weaponized humans." _Like me_ , was what he didn't say but he was almost sure from the way Charles winced that he'd caught it anyway.

Logan waited for Charles to say something, anything, no matter how hollow the words would sound, but Charles remained painfully silent. There was just grim acceptance of what was happening in his eyes, a look Logan knew only too well, with the same kind of determination to end what was wrong as soon as possible. The worst part of it was that they both knew that you couldn’t just make everything right whenever you wanted. Sometimes, it had to take time and more importantly careful planning if you wanted to have even the slightest chance of success.

“You want me to help you put an end to this and free everyone they’re holding captive there, right?” Logan sighed. He ran a hand through his hair and really wished he had something to smoke, or better yet to smoke and drink. With another heartfelt sigh, he slumped down into the armchair. “There are many, you know? At least twenty, thirty of us. And of all ages, at least half of them still kids,” he explained in a toneless voice. “I don’t know how many guards, but there are many. I’ll try and remember as much as I can about my flight but I don’t think it’ll help us much. As for the scientists… don’t take them lightly just because they’re not soldiers, they’re some of the meanest bastards I’ve ever met. Most of them, at least.”

Charles nodded solemnly. He was still unusually quiet. “Is there,” he asked softly. “anything you don’t want to talk about? Or something you think we must know?”

“I don’t think you’re ready yet to take on something that big,” Logan said.

Again, all Charles did was nod. He was quiet for a long while. Logan watched his fists open and close uselessly a couple of times before Charles spoke again, his voice barely more than a whisper, “I know, but every day we wait is another day nobody’ll help those that are suffering there.”

“Every day you wait,” Logan parroted. “You’re not waiting, though, are you? You’re improving yourselves to make a move once you’re ready. There’s nothing wrong about that.”

“So you don’t judge my hesitation?” Charles leaned back, obviously relieved. “I might need a drink for this conversation to continue.”  
“I’d judge you more if you wouldn’t,” Logan said. “And a drink sounds good.”

He watched Charles go over to a cabinet to the side of the room. He took out two crystal tumblers and poured each a few fingers of, Logan sniffed, scotch and an expensive one at that. Charles passed one of the tumblers to Logan before he sat down again.

For a while, they both just sipped at their scotch, staring at each other.

"What did you plan to do about the facility before I showed up?" Logan eventually asked. "Don't tell me you just came up with a plan to attack it when you noticed me?"

Charles shook his head with a sad little smile. "Of course not. We had plans. But none of them were good and all relied too much on luck and my gift. It was all too risky. We didn't have a real chance without you." He laughed but there wasn't much humor in it. "Raven offered to infiltrate it and gather intel for us, but I couldn't allow that. What if they found out? If they took her captive?"

"Too risky indeed even with abilities like hers," Logan agreed. "But maybe she could handle it for a short time, only to get others of your group inside, not to spy. It's worth considering, if we--if you come up with something that warrants it."

"Do you really think that might be necessary?" Charles sighed. He took another sip. "I really wish there was a safe, easy way to help everyone in need. Without having others risk their lives." He looked Logan in the eye for a brief moment. "I know it's just a dream. Even if I were able to do that it wouldn't be right to abuse my powers like that. It would only make me as bad as everyone else suppressing those who are weaker."

Logan raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised to say it, but you’re less of an asshole than I first thought. Don’t get me wrong I still think you are, but at least you care. That’s good enough in my book.” He scratched his head. “The area you want to infiltrate there is huge and we’re just a small group of eight people. We would have to split up and move quickly to get it over with before we’re hopelessly outgunned.”

“I thought about splitting up too,” Charles mused. “With you, me and Darwin each to lead a group, it should be possible to strike at three points at once.”

“Good thing they keep their prisoners all in one place then,” Logan thought out loud. Charles could just as well listen in on his thoughts, of course, but this made it easier for Logan himself to come up with an useful plan as well. “So, there are three areas we need to get to. The main security office, the research area where they keep the records and have most of the expensive equipment, and the holding cells.” He counted the points on his fingers. “Everything else, the resting areas for the soldiers, the actual laboratories, all that we can ignore.”

“We have to make do with what we can accomplish, right,” Charles nodded. “I think it’d be for the best if you and Raven took on the security, while I take at least Hank with me to the research areas. Between the two of us, we should be able to determine what to destroy and what to ignore quickly. Maybe we can even steal some of their research to counteract it at some point later. So that would leave Darwin in charge of the rescue mission. I think that’s where the most people are needed.”

Logan looked doubtful. “You and Hank, you both don’t look like you’d be any use in a fight.” At Charles’ glare and the objection that was obviously about to come, Logan said, “Without your telepathy, I bet you’d have trouble even taking on Sean, let alone any of the others. If you'd get into a fight, you’d need backup and you’d need it quick. As you said, they might have means against you.”

“I think you underestimate Hank,” Charles sighed. “But you’re right, while we concentrate on doing as much damage to their research as possible, we need somebody to stand guard and have our backs in a fight.” He thought for a moment. “Is there anything about that place that you can remember?”

Logan shrugged. “There were an awful lot of electronics there.”

“And paper? Did they write down their finds on paper, do you know that?” Logan could tell that Charles was already thinking of something.

“Next to nothing, they all had computers,” Logan provided.

“Good, that’s good, that can work in our favor if they don’t have backups elsewhere,” Charles mumbled. “I wonder if we can make up something like that in short time…”

Logan waited for him to finish thinking or whatever he was doing once his eyes went a little distant. Probably calling up to Hank. When Charles was finally looking at him again, Logan tipped the side of his head.

“We need to work out details of a plan before making any decisions,” Logan said, weighing his words carefully. “But I’m rubbish at describing stuff like that and we should be on the same page, for the safety of us all,” he went on. “So, if you want to… since it’s necessary, you could look at my memories of that place. I promise they ain’t pretty but maybe you find something there we can use to our advantage.”

For a couple of heartbeats, Charles just stared at him slack jawed, before he was able to pull himself together again. “My friend, that requires an enormous amount of trust on your side and I…”

Logan interrupted him with a wave of his hand. “Just get it over with before I think better of that offer.”

Charles nodded. “Thank you. I won’t abuse it.”

Logan could only roll his eyes, before a strange presence entered his mind, leaving him to feel like a bit of a stranger in his own mind. It wasn’t all that unpleasant thought.

 


End file.
